A course space construction based on local Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps

Coarse-grid correction is a key ingredient of scalable domain decomposition methods. In this work we construct coarse-grid space using the low-frequency modes of the subdomain Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps and apply the obtained two-level preconditioners to the extended or the original linear system arising from an overlapping domain decomposition. Our method is suitable for parallel implementation, and its efficiency is demonstrated by numerical examples on problems with large heterogeneities for both manual and automatic partitionings

Understanding Teacher Leadership in Middle School Mathematics: A Collaborative Research Effort

We report findings from a collaborative research effort designed to examine how teachers act as leaders in their schools. We find that teachers educated by the Math in the Middle Institute act as key sources of advice for colleagues within their schools while drawing support from a network consisting of other teachers in the program and university-level advisors. In addition to reporting on our findings, we reflect on our research process, noting some of the practical challenges involved, as well as some of the benefits of collaboration

Secure self-calibrating quantum random bit generator

Random bit generators (RBGs) are key components of a variety of information processing applications ranging from simulations to cryptography. In particular, cryptographic systems require "strong" RBGs that produce high-entropy bit sequences, but traditional software pseudo-RBGs have very low entropy content and therefore are relatively weak for cryptography. Hardware RBGs yield entropy from chaotic or quantum physical systems and therefore are expected to exhibit high entropy, but in current implementations their exact entropy content is unknown. Here we report a quantum random bit generator (QRBG) that harvests entropy by measuring single-photon and entangled two-photon polarization states. We introduce and implement a quantum tomographic method to measure a lower bound on the "min-entropy" of the system, and we employ this value to distill a truly random bit sequence. This approach is secure: even if an attacker takes control of the source of optical states, a secure random sequence can be distilled.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Marketing Learning Communities to Generation Z: The importance of face-to-face interaction in a digitally driven world

This article aims to identify the marketing strategies utilized by Learning Community (LC) administrators at two large, public, four-year research universities in the Midwest. The use of digital media coupled with face-to-face interaction is identified as an effective method of marketing LCs to the newest population of incoming college students, referred to as Generation Z. The students who fall into the Generation Z population are identified as technologically savvy and highly attuned to the variety of digital platforms available to share, gather, and exchange information. They expect to receive information through digital media. Findings on LC marketing success indicate that LC administrators should utilize current trends of conveying information through digital marketing strategies which serve to reinforce face-to-face interactions in order to recruit Generation Z students into LC programs

Abstract robust coarse spaces for systems of PDEs via generalized eigenproblems in the overlaps

Coarse spaces are instrumental in obtaining scalability for domain decomposition methods for partial differential equations (PDEs). However, it is known that most popular choices of coarse spaces perform rather weakly in the presence of heterogeneities in the PDE coefficients, especially for systems of PDEs. Here, we introduce in a variational setting a new coarse space that is robust even when there are such heterogeneities. We achieve this by solving local generalized eigenvalue problems in the overlaps of subdomains that isolate the terms responsible for slow convergence. We prove a general theoretical result that rigorously establishes the robustness of the new coarse space and give some numerical examples on two and three dimensional heterogeneous PDEs and systems of PDEs that confirm this property

An Empirical Study of Topic Transition in Dialogue

Transitioning between topics is a natural component of human-human dialog. Although topic transition has been studied in dialogue for decades, only a handful of corpora based studies have been performed to investigate the subtleties of topic transitions. Thus, this study annotates 215 conversations from the switchboard corpus and investigates how variables such as length, number of topic transitions, topic transitions share by participants and turns/topic are related. This work presents an empirical study on topic transition in switchboard corpus followed by modelling topic transition with a precision of 83% for in-domain(id) test set and 82% on 10 out-of-domain}(ood) test set. It is envisioned that this work will help in emulating human-human like topic transition in open-domain dialog systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

In Arabidopsis thaliana codon volatility scores reflect GC3 composition rather than selective pressure

Background: Synonymous codon usage bias has typically been correlated with, and attributed to translational efficiency. However, there are other pressures on genomic sequence composition that can affect codon usage patterns such as mutational biases. This study provides an analysis of the codon usage patterns in Arabidopsis thaliana in relation to gene expression levels, codon volatility, mutational biases and selective pressures. Results: We have performed synonymous codon usage and codon volatility analyses for all genes in the A. thaliana genome. In contrast to reports for species from other kingdoms, we find that neither codon usage nor volatility are correlated with selection pressure (as measured by dN/dS), nor with gene expression levels on a genome wide level. Our results show that codon volatility and usage are not synonymous, rather that they are correlated with the abundance of G and C at the third codon position (GC3). Conclusions: Our results indicate that while the A. thaliana genome shows evidence for synonymous codon usage bias, this is not related to the expression levels of its constituent genes. Neither codon volatility nor codon usage are correlated with expression levels or selective pressures but, because they are directly related to the composition of G and C at the third codon position, they are the result of mutational bias. Therefore, in A. thaliana codon volatility and usage do not result from selection for translation efficiency or protein functional shift as measured by positive selection

High sensitivity nanoparticle detection using optical microcavities

We demonstrate a highly sensitive nanoparticle and virus detection method by using a thermal-stabilized reference interferometer in conjunction with an ultrahigh-Q microcavity. Sensitivity is sufficient to resolve shifts caused by binding of individual nanobeads in solution down to a record radius of 12.5 nm, a size approaching that of single protein molecules. A histogram of wavelength shift versus nanoparticle radius shows that particle size can be inferred from shift maxima. Additionally, the signal-to-noise ratio for detection of Influenza A virus is enhanced to 38:1 from the previously reported 3:1. The method does not use feedback stabilization of the probe laser. It is also observed that the conjunction of particle-induced backscatter and optical-path-induced shifts can be used to enhance detection signal-to-noise

Evaluation of critical congenital heart defects screening using pulse oximetry in the neonatal intensive care unit.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the implementation of early screening for critical congenital heart defects (CCHDs) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and potential exclusion of sub-populations from universal screening.Study designProspective evaluation of CCHD screening at multiple time intervals was conducted in 21 NICUs across five states (n=4556 infants).ResultsOf the 4120 infants with complete screens, 92% did not have prenatal CHD diagnosis or echocardiography before screening, 72% were not receiving oxygen at 24 to 48 h and 56% were born ⩾2500 g. Thirty-seven infants failed screening (0.9%); none with an unsuspected CCHD. False positive rates were low for infants not receiving oxygen (0.5%) and those screened after weaning (0.6%), yet higher among infants born at <28 weeks (3.8%). Unnecessary echocardiograms were minimal (0.2%).ConclusionGiven the majority of NICU infants were ⩾2500 g, not on oxygen and not preidentified for CCHD, systematic screening at 24 to 48 h may be of benefit for early detection of CCHD with minimal burden

Einstein equations in the null quasi-spherical gauge

The structure of the full Einstein equations in a coordinate gauge based on expanding null hypersurfaces foliated by metric 2-spheres is explored. The simple form of the resulting equations has many applications -- in the present paper we describe the structure of timelike boundary conditions; the matching problem across null hypersurfaces; and the propagation of gravitational shocks.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX (revtex, amssymb), revision 18 pages, contains expanded discussion and explanations, updated references, to appear in CQ